Category Archives: Misc

This afternoon.

Graham Neary writes:

‘We can now calculate Ireland’s death rates for every age group and for every year up to and including 2021, with the help of freshly released CSO figures and the CSO’s population estimates. I’ve done this. Some interesting results:

‘Firstly, Covid-19 coincided with Ireland’s 85+ population achieving their lowest ever death rates in each of the past two years.

‘An amazing result in the circumstances.

‘The results are only slightly less positive for the grey-haired 65-84 cohort.Three out of the four categories here had a small increase in 2021 over the prior year.

‘But 2021 was still safer for every category in this cohort compared to 2018:

‘As for 45-64 year olds, every category here saw a new all-time low death rate in 2020. However, every category in this bracket also saw an increase in 2021 compared to 2020.

‘But again, each category was still safer in 2021 than it was in 2018.

‘Broadly similar for 25-44 year olds.

‘And as for for 5-24 year olds…

…the world remained extremely safe.’

Anyone?

Previously: It Tolled For Them

Not Adding Up

Meanwhile…

 

From top: A  new memorial in honour of children who died in the Clare County Nursery in Kilrush; Dr John Treacy of Burial Grounds Unit at Clare Co Co.

Tuesday.

Old Shanakyle Graveyard, county Clare.

A sculpture was unveiled  by Clare County Council in honour of the children who died at the Kilrush Nursery.

As many as 168 babies may have died at the site when it was in operation between 1923 and 1932

Breeda Murphy, PRO of the The Tuam Mother and Baby Home Alliance, writes:

We attended this memorial event invited by CEO of Clare Co Co Pat Dowling, the Cathaoirleach PJ Ryan and historian Dr John Treacy of Burial Grounds Unit at Clare Co Co.

Over the past eighteen months Clare county council have engaged specialists in an effort to locate the burial site of remains of infants and children from the Kilrush Nursery which operated from 1922-1932 as a Mother and Baby Home for the county.

An excellent booklet was produced for the event of the extensive work largely undertaken by Dr John Treacy of Clare Co Co.

Chapter 16 of Mother and Baby Home Commission’s report dealt with the Kilrush Nursery.

In 1928 the Sisters of Mercy withdrew their services due to ‘the reluctance of the Local Government board to sanction the appointment of nuns other than trained nurses – the County is now in the hands of secular nurses’ (Mercy Archives 1928)

West Clare Historian Hails Significance Of New County Nursery Memorial In Kilrush (Clare FM)

Pics: Breeda Murphy

 

 

Paul Woodfull – Now You Just Text All The Time

OMG!

Legendary musical satirist Paul Woodfull (top) delivers a bittersweet lament that perfectly captures how our modern tech gizmos can really mess with our love lives.

It’s the first of two new singles Paul has released this week: check out too Offhand Way.

Nick says: Let’s talk about texts, baby.

Paul Woodfull

Dublin Airport Authority CEO Dalton Philips

This morning.

Newstalk.

On The Pat Kenny Show, DAA Chief Executive Dalton Philips said:

“I don’t expect the holding areas to be in place this weekend.  don’t expect it to be in place.”

“If people are coming two-and-half or three-and-a-half hours before their flights as we have said, it should flow well.

“There will be periods when queuing could be up to an hour but if we have to introduce a back-up contingency – which we didn’t have last Sunday – we will have this contingency where we will say, sorry sir you’re in the queue for a flight that’s in seven hours’ time we are just going to ask you to hold.”

“It will be a covered facility. It will be a little bit temporary as we start off, but it will be covered and we will have restroom facilities there.

“It’s not ideal but what I don’t want is somebody who comes in on time to find they can’t get to the front of the queue because there are many people there who have been there from six or seven hours before.

“I understand why people are coming so early. They are spooked because we have let them down, but we’ve just got to manage this until we can restore people’s confidence again.

Dublin Airport does not expect to use the new outdoor holding areas (Newstalk)

RollingNews

Meanwhile…

Um.

What you may need to know.

1. In George Miller’s Three Thousand Years of Longing, the key to getting the most out of magical wishes without suffering repercussions isn’t being clever or trying to outsmart the ancient djinn that’s been trapped in a bottle for countless lifetimes. It’s stalling.

2. Three Thousand Years of Longing — an epic fantasy based on novelist A.S. Byatt’s short story “The Djinn in the Nightingale’s Eye” — concerns Dr. Alithea Binnie (Tilda Swinton), a solitary mythography scholar whose life is her work.

3. This trailer finds Alithea (ancient Greek for “truthful”) on her way to Istanbul for a conference and shopping at a bazaar where she puchases a bottle containing a djinn (Idris Elba).

4. Being the expert of myths and legends, Alithea knows that taking the djinn up on his offer of three wishes is a surefire way to inadvertently end up ruining her life, and so she instead implores the djinn to tell her about the people he’s granted wishes for in the past.

5. Questionable as some of Three Thousand Years of Longing’s optics are, the trailer’s fantastical visuals are both striking and sumptuous, promising signs for the film’s ability to make the most of its fairytale conceit.

Andy’s verdict: Genius In A Bottle!

Andy’s real verdict: Best enjoyed with a jazz cigarette.

Release: Cinemas on August 31.